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I grabbed my pillow and pressed it over my mouth, screaming. Everything inside hurt. I lost my brother and father, I lost my boyfriend, and my mother was gone, having sacrificed herself for me. And this was what I had to show for it all? This was my given name? A stupid healer witch who lived in the shadows and cursed her abilities? Some healer I was.
I slammed the pillow down and let out a shriek that cracked the windows around me. I fell to the bed and rolled over on my back. I pointed at the ceiling and drew a few lines.
“Stellae,” I said to the air around me.
The ceiling rippled, then the night sky appeared to me. Stars dotted along the black-blue, winking down at me. I dropped my hand, the thundering in my heart starting to recede.
If you ever miss me, just look at the stars, Azula. I’m right there with you.
I blinked away traitorous tears, not wanting to deal with them right now. Her voice drifted through my mind, repeating the phrase I knew all too well – the only one I could recall. Maybe it was her voice. These days it was muddled with others. Sometimes, it sounded like Carli’s grandmother saying them to me. Other times, it sounded like Timothy’s mother saying them to me. I tried so hard to grab hold of my mother’s voice, but it had been so long since I’d heard the real thing I wasn’t quite sure I could remember it.
A horn blared, and I sat up, my eyes flickering to the window. It blew again, sounding like a warning. I scrambled from the bed and hurled out of the bunkhouse. The rest of the trainees filed out of the mess hall, all looking as confused as I felt. My eyes shifted around, trying to find the source of the horn as it blew for a third time but came up empty. Storm clouds drifted across the sky, shrouding us in thick darkness. The wind whipped at us, howled in our ears, and water lapped at the beach's edge. The sea was angry and slapped hard, waves crashing as the storm began to grow.
Yanked back, I staggered and pushed forward, only to be stopped by hitting something smooth and hard. Reaching up, I pressed against it. I watched as it rippled before me, shimmering in rainbow color. It was then I noticed I wasn’t the only one blocked.
Every healer from my bunk had been separated and was fighting against the same forcefield I was. The foresters were just… gone. As if they either didn’t exist somehow or they’d evaporated into thin air, but I didn’t think either option was even possible. Carli existed, I knew she did, and she wouldn’t have just left me. There was no freaking way.
Rain swiped at my face before the sky broke and let the torrent of it down, spraying us. My hair was instantly plastered against my face. I looked up, squinting my eyes against the slaughter of rain, and held up a hand to cover my face as best as possible.
A scream echoed in my ears, and I turned, suddenly forgetting about any and everything else. Pure instinct zipped through my body as I scoured the air, eyes squinted through the rain. I spat out a mouthful of it and slugged forward, finding it easier to go a different way this time. I had a suspicion that if I tried to go for another healer, I would be blocked again, and I decided not to even push my luck at the moment.
The scream tore through my ears again, sounding a little farther away as the wind groaned, screeching as it grew in speed. My hair slapped around my face, and I had to peel it away from my face, spitting out another mouthful of rainwater. It wasn't as bad under the coverage a few trees, and I could see a little better with clear-up vision. There, I found the figure on the ground, heaving for air. My feet picked up speed, everything inside of me urging forward.
They whimpered in pain, thrashed, and babbled incoherently. As I got right to them, I instantly dropped to my knees and pushed their hair back. But it was a boy I didn’t know. His eyes were wild-looking and he couldn’t focus on me. He blinked rapidly and grabbed at my hands, sobbing hysterically as he tried to grab hold of himself, but he was just so out of it. I wasn’t even sure he truly realized somebody was here to help him. My eyes slipped down him, looking for the source of pain that was so obviously causing him discomfort. And then I saw it; a gash ran right up his leg. It was streaming blood, colored black and red, which wasn’t a good sign. I could see white in some places, telling me that whatever the wound was from had cut down to his bone.
ChapterTwenty-Four
You’re supposed to believe the Elders. The vampires that run everything called the shots and made the laws. There are werewolves and fae who reside along with them, but when you could suck blood and drain life from anyone you damn well pleased, you were on the top of the ladder. Fae were next in line because their powers allowed them to replicate the drainage, but only the darkest of them tended to go to that length. The Lycan prefered to be left alone, besides the rogues that ran rampant, of course.
Witches and warlocks were bottom of the ladder, not even on a rung. We didn’t like taking lives. We liked protecting and saving. It was why witches were deemed healers. Warlocks didn’t have that special touch of power. We did.
But what good was this power if there was nothing but pain and death in the world anymore?
We were here to train to save lives, but right in front of me, the boy was dying, and all I could do was watch as the light flickered, threatening to evaporate from him. I could feel his life force pulsating, desperately clinging on as I held it in place with my own powers. I had stifled the blood and tied up his leg, but moving him was bad. I could feel the slick of the blood covering my body, slimy all over my body. I didn’t care much about that. Being a healer my entire life, this was a part I had grown accustomed to long before I could even walk. No, the part that got to me was that this didn’t make any sense. He wasn’t supposed to be here. There were no tracks, no anything to indicate that he had been attacked. None that I could see anyway because it wasn’t like I was about to leave his side and run around looking for tracks or drag marks. That wasn’t my job. My job was stopping the blood flow, finding the wound's source, and getting it taken care of.
Which I had. But I was without most of my supplies and cursed myself for having just left my bunk without even a second thought. So instead, I had bound his life force into mine, forcing it to stay alive as long as possible, and tried to reach out to get hold of Carli or even Mallory, desperate to bring them to my spot. But it was like reaching through static. They couldn’t hear me for whatever reason. Our connection was somehow broken.
The harder I held on to the boy, the harder he fought against me. I pressed heat into the wound, trying to cauterize it, but it wasn’t happening. The injury didn’t want to seal up. He screamed, and I had to push him down by the shoulders, holding tight so he didn’t thrash about because doing so would only disrupt everything all over again. I would have to restart.
As I did so, my body was jolted, and the world tipped around me. As I slammed forward, my hands flew out, crashing to the ground, nails digging into the ground so I wouldn’t topple right onto the boy. My head sprung back, and I heard the screams echoing in my ears. Whipping my head around, I took in the smoke billowing and the people running. I could smell the crimson, sultry scent of blood stinging my nostrils. A few feet from us, I saw the gruesome remains of a body torn into pieces by – by –something.I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen any creature do that to another. Then again, I hadn’t exactly seen all that many creatures in my life. Small village meant a small circle, after all.
My eyes swept around as dust and smoke filtered around us, obscuring my view entirely. I sputtered as it entered my lungs and heaved a breath of air, my eyes watering. I turned back to the boy, now taking in his outfit. It was a military uniform, black with blue accents. I knew from Daddy that this was a warlock. Warlocks had blue accents. His eyes found mine, and he let out a garbled breath of air, spitting out a mouthful of blood before his head fell back and eyes rolled until they were nothing but white.
“No!” I screamed, but it was useless over the cacophony of noise on the field.
His body shuddered, then his life force slipped through my grip like water. I tried clinging to it, to wrap everything I had around it, but it wasn’t good enough. Within minutes, he was gone, and I wasn’t sure where I was. A battlefield that much was clear. I screamed again, but it fell on deaf ears.
Scrambling to my feet, I turned and ran blindly forward. Until I hit an invisible wall and was slammed back, crashing to my back just like before. Gasping a breath, I felt the world around me tingle, and dip before it spun around me again. Vertigo swept through me, and I had to shut my eyes, feeling myself floating as if on the water before I was finally righted out. Screams echoed in my ears, my name on lips I vaguely recognized. I opened my eyes and blinked, feeling the slash of water from up above. The sky was crying, and I had a funny feeling it was for me. Grandmother used to say that the rain only came when the world was at its worst times, and I had just witnessed one of those.
“Azula?” Carli’s voice turned my head, and her eyes widened as a gasp left her lips. “Are you all right?”
I blinked and looked down at my hands, taking in the sight of the blood that still coated them.Hisblood.
“I – I couldn’t save him,” I stammered, pushing myself up.
Ezekial swept up next to Carli and kneeled beside me, taking hold of my chin and pulling my face so our eyes were forced to meet.
“You couldn’t save who?” he demanded, his words tilting a little, and little wings fluttered in the base of my stomach.
